Samuel Hornell Meredith (9 May 1877 – 1936) was a Western Samoan businessman and politician. He served as a member of the Legislative Council from 1929 to 1932.
Biography Meredith was born in Samoa to a British father and Samoan mother and became a merchant. In 1910 he was part of a group that petitioned the German authorities for the introduction of local government in the territory.Margery Perham & Anthony Hamilton Millard Kirk-Greene (1988) Pacific prelude: a journey to Samoa and Australasia, 1929, p234 During the Spanish flu pandemic, seven members of his close family died.Up front with the editor Pacific Islands Monthly, November 1969, p4 He was later given the Samoan chiefly title Tupua.
A critic of the New Zealand administration of Samoa,The Mau Pacific Islands Monthly, December 1963, p93 he contested the first elections to the Legislative Council in 1924, but failed to be elected. He helped the anti-colonial Mau movement gain formal legal representation from a firm of solicitors in New Zealand in 1927,Kilifoti Sisilia Eteuati (1982) Evaevaga a Samoa: Assertion of Samoan autonomy 1920–1936 and ran for election again in 1929, this time successfully, as he was elected in second place behind Alexander W. Johnston.
Following a term in office, his chances of re-election in 1932 were seen as slim,Mr Meredith and the minister Pacific Islands Monthly, November 1932, p39 and he went on to finish last out of the five candidates contesting the vote.Samoan elections, Pacific Islands Monthly, December 1932, p38
He died in 1936 at the age of 59 following a long illness.Mr. Samuel H. Meredith Pacific Islands Monthly, December 1935, p35
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